A couple of United Airlines pilots were arrested for suspected of walking drunk at Glasgow Airport before they were to fly an aircraft from Scotland to the United States.
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They’re accused of being drunk as they prepared to fly 141 passengers from Scotland to New Jersey on Saturday.
The men are expected to appear in court in Paisley, near Glasgow, on Monday.
United said in a statement to The Associated Press that Saturday’s Glasgow-Newark flight was delayed for about 10 hours while the company looked for a replacement crew to operate the flight.
Police would not comment on what Gerbenc and Licona were doing before their morning flight, but the FAA rule “eight hours from bottle to throttle” protects everyone from the dangers of alcohol and altitude.
A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service confirmed that neither pilot entered a plea and that both have been released on bail.
“Two men aged 35 and 45 have been arrested and are presently detained in police custody”, said a spokesman for Police Scotland.
“The two pilots have been removed from service and their flying duties”, United spokeswoman Erin Benson said. “The safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority”.
For pilots, the limit of alcohol in the case of breath is nine micrograms of alcohol in 100 milliliters, according to the Act.
Jean-Francois Perreault, 39, and Imran Zafar Syed, 37, were arrested on July 18 as they were due to pilot an Airbus A310 plane, which carries up to 250 passengers, for Canada’s Air Transat.
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A second court date is pending.
